by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
Mayor John Peyton’s streamlined Jacksonville Economic Development Commission is designed to create jobs, wages and tax income. Jobs that don’t contribute to those aims might have a dim future, the commission’s executive director says.
After learning his 40-person staff would be trimmed by eight, Kirk Wendland said the JEDC would meet Peyton’s challenge to do more with less. He said “everything is up for evaluation” as he and commission Chairman M.C. “Ceree” Harden lead a two-month examination into the JEDC’s organization and responsibilities.
The JEDC manages 11 divisions and authorities with responsibilities ranging from business recruiting to promoting Jacksonville to the entertainment industry. Over the next 60 days, Wendland said the commission’s structure would be pared back. Some current responsibilities that stray from Peyton’s narrow mandate will be shifted to other City departments or outsourced.
“We’re going to look at some of the functions we perform and look at whether or not those are best housed in the JEDC,” said Wendland. “There are multiple things that need to be looked at and evaluated to make sure we’re performing our job well without excess capacity.”
Asked to define the JEDC’s job following restructuring, Wendland gave the mayor’s office mantra that has been repeated at every meeting since Peyton addressed the commission in February.
“Sustainable job growth, rising personal income and broader tax base,” said Wendland. “Anything that doesn’t fit within that mission might not end up within the JEDC.”
The mayor wants to present a streamlined JEDC as a model for efficient, effective government, Wendland said. He said the staff cuts and the idea for a moratorium on development incentives developed during conversations among himself, Harden and Peyton since the mayor’s February speech.
When his staff learned that Peyton’s path toward City job growth would begin by cutting jobs at the JEDC, Wendland said it was largely understood that the eight-year-old commission was due for change.
“We’ve all known, since the transition started basically, that ultimately when a new administration comes in there’s going to be change,” said Wendland. “Those who believe in the mayor’s mission and are the most productive and efficient will have nothing to worry about.”
Wendland said the JEDC had asked for $10.8 million in Peyton’s 2004-2005 budget. That number is about the same as the previous year’s budget. Wendland said he expected the final number to reflect the staff and structural changes.